Centralizing Student Epistemic Privilege to Provide Equitable Opportunities for Learning

• In Event: 32.084 - Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: 32.084-7 - Professional Development for Success in Urban Schools

Abstract

More and more, research related to youth literacy practices in schools has called for paying better and closer attention to students’ lived experiences as the sources of knowledge and as necessary for student interest and engagement in learning ((Alim, 2011; Dutro, 2010; Fecho & Botzakis, 2007). Through a focus on classroom discussions in one English Language Arts (ELA) classroom over a nine-week unit, this work provides examples of the importance of centralizing students’ embodied and experiential knowledge as the source of learning. It also emphasizes the need to examine how students take up learning when their epistemic privilege is seen as a necessary perspective to deepen knowledge and how this provides equitable and just opportunities for learning.

Author

• Teresa Sosa, Indiana University - IUPUI